Category Archives: medal of honor

What I’m Working On

01 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by in 2nd U.S. Cavalry, medal of honor, officers, research, Reserve Brigade, writing

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Nothing like a government shutdown to provide more time for research and posting.  I try not to write this sort of post too often, as my assumption is that readers would rather see posts than what may be in the pipeline.  It has been a very eventful research summer, however, so I think at this point it’s appropriate.

My research trip in June was very productive, better than I had hoped for.  I still wish I’d learned how to access the 2nd U.S. Cavalry’s muster rolls before the last day of my visit, but live and learn.  The military records staff at the National Archives could not have been more professional, courteous and helpful.  Every time I thought I’d reached the end of the trail, they had a suggestion that turned up another nugget.  Similarly, I have discovered that the Denver Public Library has an extensive collection of records, including the majority of state adjutant general reports as well as complete sets of The Rebellion Record and the Supplement to the OR.

I just completed a thorough study of the post returns of Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania during the war.  This will be making an appearance soon as a brief series of posts.  Now that I have a map of where all of the regular cavalry recruiting stations were during the war, hopefully it will lead me to some historical treasure.

Reserve Brigade history.  I am convinced that I have all of the official primary records that still exist, it’s a matter of working through them all and figuring how to get the interesting parts into the narrative.  There are still a lot of records to locate and work through, so this one is a long way from completion.  Letter collections will be key to making this a worthwhile history.  Which means if you come across primary source info or newspaper accounts of the 1st US, 2nd US, 5th US, 6th US, 6th PA, and 2nd MA Cavalry regiments, or the 1st NY Dragoons, I am very interested.

2nd US Cavalry history.  NARA was exceptionally fruitful in this area, and I’m really enjoying working through the material.  I’ve already found records of over 400 of the regiment’s troopers, which will hopefully lead to more primary source material.  The current regimental historian and curator of the regimental museum in Germany, Ryan Meyer, has been very interested and helpful.

Regular cavalry roster.  It is a goal of mine to get a list posted on the website of all the men who served in the regular cavalry regiments during the war.  Profiles will be available for a small fee, but I see no reason why a free list of all of them on this blog would not be appropriate.

Learning Latin.  I completed a transcription of the death records of all the regular cavalrymen who died during the war.  The primary records list cause of death in Latin, which became very educational.  Vulnus punctum, anyone?  Surely there’s a blog post in there somewhere.

Regular cavalry medal of honor files.  I found two while at NARA and found them very informative, so now I’m working on getting the others.  I don’t have an exact count, as a couple that I had seen documented as being awarded (Sergeant Hagan of the 2nd US Cavalry at Fredericksburg, for example) were rescinded after the war.

Newspaper articles.  Vince Slaugh recently tipped me off to several articles that should be of interest to readers of this blog, including several on the 6th US Cavalry that eluded my co-author and I when we compiled the regimental history.

Blog improvement.  Still a great deal to be done here, most noticeably the creation of regimental and resource pages.

Thomas Bull Dewees, Paul Quirk and Charles McKnight Leoser.  These three gentlemen keep popping up of late, so there are sure to be posts on them once sufficient records are located.  Stay tuned.

Scott Patchan’s The Last Battle of Winchester by Savas-Beattie arrived in the mail recently.  I’ve really been looking forward to this one, can’t wait to get to the fight at the Opequon (“oh-PECK-en,” as the gentleman at the Winchester Visitor Center informed me this summer).

More to follow in the very near future.

Medal of Honor – Timothy O’Connor, 1st U.S. Cavalry

26 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by in 1864, 1st Cavalry, battle of Deep Bottom, medal of honor, research, volunteers

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Special thanks to Craig Swain and Jimmy Price for bringing this man to my attention.  There’s all too little data out there on the 1st U.S. Cavalry in the Civil War, so every bit of detail unearthed is a victory.  Readers will see more on the 23rd Illinois and the 1st U.S. Cavalry shortly.  This is another of those threads that lead far afield once it is pulled and followed.

Timothy O’Connor was born in County Kerry, Ireland on August 15, 1842.  After immigrating to the United States, he settled in Chicago, Illinois.

At the outbreak of the war, O’Connor joined one of the many volunteer units forming in the Chicago area.  He enlisted in Company F, “somebody’s Guard, Rifles, etc” 23rd Illinois Infantry at Camp Douglas, Illinois on March 15, 1862. The regiment was raised entirely in Cook County, Illinois.  He was mustered in by Captain Moriarty when the regiment officially mustered in Chicago on May 14, 1862.  Like so many soldiers, his name is incorrectly entered in his enlistment documents.  Timothy “Conner” is described in his enlistment papers as 22 years old, 5’9” tall, with light hair, blue eyes, and a fair complexion.  He reported his residence as Chicago and his occupation as a laborer.

The regiment was assigned to Colonel James A. Mulligan’s “Irish Brigade,” not to be confused with the Army of the Potomac storied unit of the same name.  The regiment initially operated in Missouri, near Jefferson City and Lexington.  At the time O’Connor joined the regiment, it was guarding prisoners at Camp Douglas.  In June 1862 it was ordered to Harpers Ferry, where its duties principally involved guarding the railroad lines in the area until the end of the year.

Timothy took quickly to the life of a soldier, earning promotions to corporal and sergeant within months of enlisting.  By December, O’Connor had apparently had enough of guarding railroads.  On December 24, 1862, he took advantage of a War Department order issued after the battle of Antietam which authorized volunteer soldiers to join regular army regiments.  Given the experience of the year’s campaigning, hundreds of volunteers chose to join cavalry regiments.

Sergeant O’Connor was enlisted as a private into Company E, 1st U.S. Cavalry by Lieutenant Judson Haycock at New Creek, Virginia.  Four others from his company and at least three others from other companies in his former regiment joined the 1st U.S. Cavalry the same day.  His new enlistment documents described him as 22 years old, 5’8 ½” tall, with fair hair, gray eyes and a ruddy complexion.

During fighting at the first battle of Deep Bottom, Virginia on July 28, 1864, Private O’Connor captured the regimental colors of the 18th North Carolina Infantry.  He was subsequently awarded the Medal of Honor in General Orders dated January 5, 1865.  His citation reads “for extraordinary heroism on 28 July 1864, while serving with Company E, 1st U.S. Cavalry, in action at Malvern, Virginia, for capture of flag of the 18th North Carolina Infantry (Confederate States of America).”

Private O’Connor was discharged from the army at the expiration of his enlistment on December 24, 1865 in New Orleans, Louisiana.  He returned to Chicago, where he lived the rest of his life.

Timothy O’Connor died in Chicago on March 26, 1915, at the age of 72.  There is a memorial headstone at Arlington National Cemetery because he is a Medal of Honor awardee, but his remains are in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Chicago.

Sources:

Civil War Centennial Commission of Illinois, Illinois Military Units in the Civil War, 1962.

Dyer, Frederick, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion

NARA, RG 94, Register of Enlistments in the U.S. Army, 1798-1914

Regimental roster, accessed on June 20, 2013 at http://civilwar.illinoisgenweb.org/reg_html/023_reg.html

Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Illinois, 9 vols., 1900-1902, accessed on June 19, 2013 at http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/databases/reghist.pdf

Fiddler’s Green – Myles Moylan

17 Sunday May 2009

Posted by in 2nd Dragoons/ 2nd Cavalry, 5th Cavalry, 7th U.S. Cavalry, cavalry, Custer, Fiddler's Green, medal of honor

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As a former commander of Company C, 2nd U.S. Dragoons (at the time in the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, currently designated the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, but still on continuous active service since 1836), it’s always gratifying to turn up information on one of the company’s soldiers. Little did I suspect, however, where following Moylan’s life would lead me. Shiloh, Gettysburg, Little Big Horn, Wounded Knee — Myles Moylan was definitely born to be a cavalryman. Despite controversy shrouding his career more than once, the quality of the 36 years of his service speaks for itself.

Myles Moylan was born at Amesbury, Massachusetts on December 17, 1838. His father was Thomas Moylan and his mother was Margaret Riley, both born in Ireland. Educated in local schools, he worked as a shoemaker prior joining the army. He was enlisted as a private in Company C, 2nd U.S. Dragoons by Lieutenant McArthur in Boston, Massachusetts on June 8, 1857. His enlistment documents describe him as 5’9 ½” tall, with black hair, gray eyes and a ruddy complexion. For some reason he listed Galway, Ireland as his place of birth on his enlistment paperwork.

Army life apparently agreed well with young Myles. He was promoted to corporal on October 1, 1858, and sergeant exactly two years later. During this time, he served in the Utah expedition of 1857-1858 and later in Kansas and Nebraska. He fought in an engagement with Indians at Blackwater Springs, Kansas on July 11, 1860. Sergeant Moylan was promoted to first sergeant of the company on May 17, 1861.

This last promotion proved very important to the company, as all of its assigned officers resigned at the outbreak of the war. Company C left Fort Leavenworth, Kansas on June 11, 1861, under the command of Lieutenant Farrand of the 1st U.S. Infantry. It didn’t rejoin the rest of the regiment until June 1863. During these two years, it was commanded by eight officers of different regiments and corps, including four infantry officers and two artillery officers. It would have been the steady hand of the first sergeant that kept the company functioning.

First Sergeant Moylan led his company through engagements at Wilson’s Creek, Missouri, Forts Henry and Donelson in Tennessee. He re-enlisted at Pittsburgh, Tennessee on April 1, 1862, just days before the battle of Shiloh. He continued to serve with the company through that battle and the subsequent siege of Corinth. During the winter of 1862-1863, they served as the escort for General Grant for several months at Memphis, Tennessee. First Sergeant Moylan remained with the company until March 28, 1863, when he was discharged at Memphis, Tennessee. He was appointed a second lieutenant in the 5th U.S. Cavalry on February 19th, but it took over a month for the news to reach him.

Lieutenant Moylan joined his new regiment in Virginia in May, and was assigned to Company D. He immediately assumed command of the company upon his arrival due to a shortage of officers with the regiment. He commanded the company through engagements at Brandy Station, Aldie, Middletown, Upperville, Gettysburg, Williamsport, Boonsboro, Funkstown, Falling Waters, Manassas Gap, Front Royal, and Brandy Station again in August. The regiment moved with the rest of the Reserve Brigade to Giesboro Point, D.C. for remounting and refitting from August to October 1863. His final battle with the regiment was the engagement at Morton’s Ford, Virginia on October 11th, as part of the diversion for Kilpatrick’s raid.

His commission was revoked and he was dismissed from the service on October 20, 1863 for an unauthorized visit to Washington, D.C. and failing to report to military district headquarters. Sympathetic biographers have on several occasions referred to this as a “trifling offense,” but given the length of his service he should have known better. In his defense, officer absenteeism was a common problem subject to periodic crackdowns during the war, and he may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He didn’t stay out of action long, however. He enlisted in Company A, 4th Massachusetts Cavalry at Malden, MA under the fictitious name of Charles E. Thomas on December 2, 1863. Despite using a nom de guerre, he received a $325 bounty for enlisting. Given his experience, it is unsurprising that he was a sergeant in the company by December 26th, and appointed first lieutenant a month later on January 25, 1864.

Lieutenant Moylan led his company through engagements on John’s Island, South Carolina in July, 1864, and near Jacksonville, Florida in October before his regiment was assigned to the forces besieging Petersburg. He was promoted to captain of Company K on December 1, 1864, and served briefly on the staff of Major General John Gibbon. He commanded a squadron of the regiment at the headquarters of the XXIV Corps during the Richmond campaign, and on April 9, 1865 received a brevet promotion to major of volunteers for gallant and meritorious services during the campaign in Virginia. He was honorably mustered out of service with his regiment on November 14, 1865 at Richmond, Virginia.

After the holidays, Moylan was back in uniform, this time once again under his own name. He enlisted in the general mounted service at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania as a private on January 25, 1866, and on March 10th was promoted to corporal.

Corporal Moylan was assigned to the new 7th U.S. Cavalry when it was formed on August 20, 1866, and his fortunes soared again. He was noticed by the regiment’s Lieutenant Colonel Custer, and was appointed the regiment’s first sergeant major on September 1, 1866. The two had briefly served together in the 5th Cavalry prior to Gettysburg. Moylan would serve in the 7th Cavalry for the next 26 years.

Custer encouraged his new sergeant major to apply for a commission once again. He was appointed a first lieutenant, 7th U.S. Cavalry on July 28, 1866, but was initially unable to accept it because he failed the appointment examination. Custer obtained permission to administer a second test, however, and tutored him to pass the examination the second time.

Such patronage was not without its costs. The new lieutenant was not initially admitted into the junior officer’s mess, though whether this was due to his prior enlisted service or Custer’s favoritism is unclear. Lieutenant Moylan served as the regimental adjutant from February 20, 1867 to December 31, 1870, when he was relieved at his own request. He served in the 1868 Washita campaign, following which he was also assigned as an acting assistant adjutant general of the troops serving in Kansas from 1868 to 1869. Lieutenant Moylan was assigned on recruiting service from January 1871 to January 1873.

While on recruiting service, Myles Moylan married Charlotte Calhoun on October 22, 1872 at Madison, Indiana. Charlotte, or Lottie as she was known, was the 19 year old sister of First Lieutenant James Calhoun. Lieutenant Calhoun also served in the 7th Cavalry, and was married to Custer’s half sister, so this further cemented Moylan’s ties to the Custer family.

Moylan was promoted to captain in the 7th U.S. Cavalry on March 1, 1872, and assigned to command of Company A when he returned to the regiment. He commanded Company A and at times a squadron during the Yellowstone and Black Hills expeditions of 1873 and 1874.

Captain Moylan commanded his company at the battle of Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876, and was one the few officers of the regiment to survive the fight. He participated in the fight of Major Reno’s column in the valley, and later the Reno-Benteen defense on the bluff. Moylan lost both his patron and his brother in law during the battle. Interestingly given his ties to Custer, he later wrote a controversial letter defending Reno’s actions during the battle. He was part of the burial detail after the fight, and several months later wrote to Libby Custer of how he’d found her husband’s body on the battlefield.

Captain Moylan again led his company in the campaign against the Nez Perce the following year, when he earned the Medal of Honor. After a forced march of several days, the cavalry column successfully overtook a camp of the elusive tribe near Bear Paw Mountain, Montana on September 30, 1877. During the subsequent battle, he “gallantly led his command in action against Nez Perce Indians until he was severely wounded,” according to the award citation. He was reportedly wounded in the right thigh while at the head of his company charging at a full gallop. His was one of nine medals of honor awarded for the battle. He was brevetted major in the regular army for the battle on February 27, 1890, and his medal of honor was awarded November 27, 1894.

In 1880, Captain Moylan commanded his company and Fort Meade, Dakota Territory, according to census data. He commanded a battalion of three companies of cavalry during the summer Little Missouri River campaign of 1881, and his own company during an engagement with Crows in Montana Territory on November 5, 1887. He continued to serve on the frontier through the fighting at Wounded Knee in 1890.

Captain Moylan was promoted to major in the 10th U.S. Cavalry on April 8, 1892. He retired a year later, on April 15, 1893, after a career of almost 36 years. He and his wife moved to California, where he settled in San Diego with his wife. They had no children.

Major Myles Moylan died of stomach cancer in San Diego, California on December 1, 1909. Lottie survived him by seven years, dying March 29, 1916. The couple had no children, and are buried together in Greenwood Memorial Park, San Diego.

Sources:

Hammer, Kenneth. Men With Custer, Biographies of the 7th U.S. Cavalry. Fort Collins: Old Army Press, 1972.

Hatch, Thom. The Custer Companion. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2002.

Heitman, Francis B. Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1903. Page 733.

Henry, Guy V. Military Record of Army and Civilian Appointments in the United States Army, Volume I. New York: D. Van Nostrand Publishing, 1873. Page 172.

Index to Compiled Military Service Records (accessed at http://www.ancestry.com on May 14, 2009)

Powell, William H. Records of Living Officers of the United States Army. Philadelphia: L.R. Hamersly & Co., 1890.

Price, George F. Across the Continent with the Fifth Cavalry. New York: Antiquarian Press, Ltd., 1959.

Rodenbough, Theophilus F. From Everglade to Canyon with the Second United States Cavalry. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000.

U.S. Army Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914. (accessed at http://www.ancestry.com on May 15, 2009)

Utley, Robert. Life in Custer’s Cavalry. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1987.

Wert, Jeffry D. Custer. New York, Simon & Schuster, 1997.

Another Cav Medal of Honor Winner

27 Tuesday Feb 2007

Posted by in medal of honor

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While the majority of posts on this blog center on the Civil War, I would be remiss if I failed to mention a much more modern cavalryman receiving the nation’s highest award today. Major (Ret) Bruce Crandall was supporting the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry when he earned the award. The TV report showed him proudly wearing his stetson and dress blues (that he was wearing his spurs also is a pretty safe assumption) as the President hung the award around his neck in a ceremony at the White House today. The story as released by the AP follows. Well done, Bruce.

Pilot Gets Medal of Honor 41 Years Later
By PAULINE JELINEK
AP
WASHINGTON (AP) – Bruce Crandall was a soldier once … and young. As a 32-year-old helicopter pilot, he flew through a gantlet of enemy fire, taking ammunition in and wounded Americans out of one of the fiercest battles of the Vietnam War, Army records say. Now, a week after his 74th birthday, Crandall will receive the nation’s highest military honor Monday in a White House ceremony with President Bush . “I’m still here,” he said of his 41-year-wait for the Medal of Honor. “Most of these awards are posthumous, so I can’t complain.”

Crandall’s actions in the November 1965 Battle at Ia Drang Valley were depicted in the Hollywood movie “We Were Soldiers,” adapted from the book “We Were Soldiers Once … And Young.” At the time, Crandall was a major commanding a company of the 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). “We had the first airmobile division … the first one to use aircraft as a means of transportation and sustaining combat,” Crandall said. His unit was put together earlier that year to go to Vietnam and “wasn’t as thought out as things are today.”

He didn’t have gunners for his aircraft. That’s why he flew unarmed helicopters into the battlefield. He didn’t have night vision equipment and other later technology that lessens the danger of flying. The unit had “minimum resources and almost no administrative people” – thus the lack of help to do the reams of paperwork that had to be sent to Washington for the highest medals, Crandall said.

Generals in-theater could approve nothing higher than the Distinguished Flying Cross, Crandall said in a phone interview from his home near Bremerton, Wash, so he received that award. Through the years, he was able to get that upgraded to a Distinguished Service Cross and now to the Medal of Honor. Crandall was leading a group of 16 helicopters in support of the 1st Cavalry Division’s 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment – the regiment led by George Armstrong Custer when he met his end at the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn, or “Custer’s Last Stand.”

Without Crandall’s actions, the embattled men at Ia Drang would have died in much the same way – “cut off, surrounded by numerically superior forces, overrun and butchered to the last man,” the infantry commander, Lt. Col. Harold Moore, wrote in recommending Crandall for the medal. Moore, now a retired three-star general, later wrote the book about the battle along with Joseph L. Galloway, a former war correspondent now with McClatchy Newspapers.

“This unit, taking some of the heaviest casualties of the war, out of water and fast running out of ammunition, was engaged in one of the fiercest battles of the Vietnam war against a relentlessly attacking, highly motivated, vastly superior force,” said U.S. Army documents supporting Crandall’s medal. The U.S. forces were up against two regiments of North Vietnamese Army infantry, “determined to overrun and annihilate them,” the documents said. The fighting became so intense that the helicopter landing zone for delivering and resupplying troops was closed, and a unit assigned to medical evacuation duties refused to fly. Crandall volunteered for the mission and with wingman and longtime friend Maj. Ed Freeman made flight after flight over three days to deliver water, ammunition and medical supplies. They are credited with saving more than 70 wounded soldiers by flying them out to safety, and Freeman received the Medal of Honor in July 2001. Paperwork and other parts of the process delayed Crandall’s medal until now, officials said.

Thinking back to the Vietnam battle, Crandall remembers the first day was “very long … we were in the air for 14 and a half hours.” He also thinks of how impressive and calm the unit on the ground remained, saying Moore and his commanders were “solid as rocks” throughout the fight. And of course, Crandall says, he’s also proud of his own performance. “I’m so proud that I didn’t screw it up,” he said.